Will California Ban Polycarbonate Plastic Baby Bottles?

This week, the California Legislature will have the last chance of the two-year session to vote on two potentially ground-breaking bills that would reduce toxic chemicals in consumer products. One bill would eliminate bisphenol A, or BPA, in baby bottles and sippy cups. The other would remove perfluorinated compounds used in the manufacture of Teflon from plastic food wrap.

Democrats Carole Migden and Don Perata, of San Francisco and Oakland, both ending their service in the Senate at the end of August, coauthored a bill that would eliminate bisphenol A – the building block of clear, brittle polycarbonate plastic – in products intended for children 3 and under. The bill passed the Senate in May, and a week ago lost in the Assembly. The roll call vote was 33-32 with 13 Democrats abstaining. The measure needs 41 votes to pass the Assembly. A scaled down version, SB 1713, is expected to come before the Assembly as early as Wednesday.

Lance Iversen/The Chronicle

Toddler Lucina Lippman of Berkeley showed off her glass bottle last year, part of a parental trend to avoid hard plastic polycarbonate.

The bill was amended to assuage objections of the food industry, which hotly opposes it along with the chemical industry. If passed, the measure would put an end to the sale of polycarbonate baby bottles and children’s cups in the state. Eliminated from the bill are limits on bisphenol A in liners of formula cans. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn’t said if he would sign the measure

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Scientists have found that at very low doses, bisphenol A can disrupt the endocrine systems of lab animals, and lead to neurological, developmental and reproductive damage. The National Toxicology Program of the National Institutes of Health had cautioned that the chemical could have effects in humans and recommended further assessment. Experts in the American Chemistry Council, which represents the chemical manufacturers, say that bisphenol A has long been studied and wouldn’t pose a problem for humans.

On Aug. 15, the Friday before the Monday vote on the Migden-Perata bill in the California Assembly, the federal Food and Drug Administration issued a draft assessment concluding that products made with bisphenol A are safe. Within minutes the industry representatives used the FDA decision to lobby even harder against the bill, which was already facing an uphill climb since it passed the Senate .

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After the FDA’s findings, researchers across the country expressed outrage that the federal agency was capitulating to industry. Laura Vandenberg, a researcher at Harvard Medical School’s Forsyth Institute, said the FDA used only two published studies and ignored more than 100 other studies that show effects of low dose exposure.

The second bill, SB1313 by Sen. Ellen Corbett, a San Leandro Democrat, would ban perfluorinated compounds, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, from food packaging. The compound is used to make Teflon and Goretex and other products with non-stick surfaces on cookware and waterproof clothing, textiles, carpets and papers.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, PFOA is a a persistent chemical that has been found at low levels in the blood of most Americans tested for it as well as in marine and land animals. Lab studies link PFOA to birth defects and cancer.

Here’s the number at the California State Information Center to telephone legislators – 916-322-9900.

UPDATE August 27. The Corbett bill to ban perfluorinated compounds in food wrap, SB1313, passed the Assembly by a 43-30 vote. The bill returns to the Senate for a vote of concurrence and, if achieved, goes on to the governor for his signature or veto.

SB1713, the polycarbonate baby bottle bill, is still awaiting a vote by the Assembly.